"It's produced by bacteria in the soil, and they convert the nitrogen that farmers put on their crops into nitrous oxide.

"It's a potent greenhouse gas, it will reflect around 300 times more heat back to the earth than carbon dioxide," he said.

"It's also an ozone depletant, so people are becoming more and more concerned about the effects of nitrous oxide on the ozone layer."

Dr Boersma says when nitrate is applied to vegetable crops, it's released very quickly, which means most of it isn't absorbed by the crop, but instead runs off or is turned into gas.

Nitrous oxide is a potent greenhouse gas, it will reflect around 300 times more heat back to the earth than carbon dioxide

Dr Mark Boersmer, TIA

"When a farmer applies a nitrate fertiliser roughly 20 - 50 per cent of that nitrogen will end up in the plant, the rest of it is lost through different processes like gas emissions as ammonia or later-on nitrous oxide, and then where the nitrogen will leech out of the soil," he said.

But by adding a chemical compound to standard nitrogen fertilisers available in Australia, Dr Boersma expects to dramatically slow down the rate at which the nitrogen is released, meaning more of it enters the crop and less is converted into harmful gasses.

"So these compounds that are used to slow down the nitrification process will smooth out the release of the fertiliser for a longer and slower release which will match the crops needs more closely."

The TIA research team is conducting a trial on a broccoli crop at the Forthside research farm in north-west Tasmania.

Dr Boersmer is applying different rates of fertiliser with the added chemical compound and collecting gas in canisters dotted throughout the paddock.

"When you look at the trial at the moment you can see the differences in fertiliser rates, and we expect that we will find differences in emissions of nitrous oxide and also carbon dioxide.

"It won't completely solve the problem, but it's a step in the right direction and it's less money that growers are just throwing away when they apply nitrogen."